Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Which leaves us helpless helpless helpless helpless

Tupelo is going to publish manuscripts from Harold Schweizer
and Annie Guthrie, from out of their open reading period.That’s good, I’m sure, but what I’m
interested in is the length of the lists for Honorable Mention and Other
Remarkable Work.There are a LOT of
manuscripts out there.I just thought I
should repost this list.We’re living in
a very crowded room, people.“The chains
are locked and tied across my door,” as Neil Young would say it. Here's the electric version:

Honorable Mentions:

Seth Abramson, Madison, Wisconsin, Thievery

Desirée Alvarez, New York, New York, Enchanted Ground

Geoffrey Babbitt, Geneva, New York, Appendices Pulled from a
Study on Light

Anon, Tupelo can't afford to publish them all, as poetry barely breaks even. But your point is taken. I feel that same way when a journal rejects someone's work with a note saying how much they enjoyed the poems. I mean, if you enjoyed the poems, why did you reject them? You know?

Fuzz (and John), it can mean several things. It can mean "We enjoyed your poems...but not quite enough," or "We enjoyed your poems...but frankly we enjoyed other work more." It can mean "We really enjoyed your poems...but we're overstocked and have no space for them in our journal right now." And it can mean "I really enjoyed your poems, personally, but some other people on the editorial board didn't, sorry."

Also, some of these manuscripts have already been picked up by other presses. Starzinger's just won the Barrow Street prize, and Abramson's won the Akron prize. Chang has signed at least one of hers too.

the same reason the hundreds of others who knew they didn't have a chance and yet paid their money entrance fee to enter this contest:

as an incentive to focus one's efforts . . . as a motivational tool.

If that's not a good enough reason, Anon, I'm sorry. I sent the book out in June to 3 other contests also, and didn't win those either (nor make it onto the runners-up list) . . .

But what's your point, Anon—— are you saying that I shouldn't have wasted my time and money, that I should just accept the fact that no publisher will publish my books, that no magazine will publish my poems, and therefore I should stop trying, stop altogether, stop writing? . . .